Reconstruction is frequently looked at as a formative period in US history -- that the outcomes of Reconstruction have had a large influence on today's society. (*) As such, you will see many different perspectives. The three below are ones I consider to be foundational to the subject, almost required reading. Search out others that explore different perspectives.

First off, if you'd like a short-ish, very useful treatment of the events and people of the time, see Michael Perman's Emancipation and Reconstruction. It's a bit of a textbook in that it's light on analysis and heavy on raw information. It's incredibly useful as a primer on the subject. Perman was an expert on Southern history and this book will make you an expert on the era. OK, maybe not an expert, but will help tremendously.

Next, move on to the book that was (and still is in many ways) the go-to for the time period, Eric Foner's *Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution.*As the title suggests, Foner sees Reconstruction as a failure in many ways. Johnson was incompetent, Grant was less than fully committed, and the various factions in the GOP drove a possible epiphanal moment into a mess where Freedmen weren't much better off than during slavery. This book is a must-read on the subject.

Lastly (for this post -- there are oodles of good works out there,) get a copy of David Blight's Race and Reunion. Pour yourself a nice cup of coffee, turn on some light music and settle in for a great read. It's one of those books that when finished, you say to yourself 'I really wish I could write like that.' His argument -- that the various interpretations of the Civil War and its meaning (emancipation, the 'Lost Cause,' and preservation of the Union) have merged together into a collective memory that somehow forgets the horrors of slavery itself -- is very well-developed and presented with great cogency.

(*) Keep in mind that for most historians, the time period in which they work is not random or accidental. For example, my labor history work is nearly completely concentrated in the 2nd industrial revolution? Why? Because that's where the vast majority of US labor practices were developed. Scholars of race in the US will often work in the earlier periods of US history. Why? To show that race and the problems created around it are foundational to the country's history. Perman, above, was an Englishman who came to the US in the 60s and wanted to understand the roots of the civil rights movement of the time. So his research went to where he saw the roots of the problem -- reconstruction.